EFFECTIVE TEAM DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: PLAYING NICELY

Annual Conference 2015

Dr. Angela Spranger, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

StepOne Consulting, LLC

THE AGREEMENTThis presentation will guide participants through the phases of team development, specific communication-based team dynamics, and critical – even “crucial” –practices to facilitate more effective communication and confrontation.

At the end, you will be able to:

Name the five stages of team development

Identify where conflict happens

Identify two types of conflict

Identify two ways you can proactively prevent conflict on project teams

Generate and share one method for effectively addressing interpersonal conflict on project teams

Use Emotional Intelligence to resolve future conflict / facilitate communication

AN INTRODUCTION TO EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI, OR EQ)

Recognize and Regulate – foundation of Emotional Intelligence

Values congruence

Ethical agreement

Communication and understanding of personal and organizational values

Communication and validation of organizational ethical perspective

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

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Self-Awareness

• Understanding your own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and motives

Self-Management

• Controlling or redirecting our internal states, impulses, and resources

Social Awareness

• Understanding and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situation of others

Relationship Management

• Managing other people’s emotions

PREDICTIVE RELATIONSHIPS – THE WHYIf Y =

1. Customer loyalty

2. Organizational profitability

3. Employee productivity

4. Employee Turnover*

5. Safety and Health Data (Accidents)*

6. Absenteeism*

7. Merchandise Shrinkage*

*= negative relationships

XENG Y

XENG Y

Team Cohesiveness

External Challenges

Member Similarity

Team Size

Member Interaction

Somewhat Difficult Entry

Team Successes

TEAM COHESIVENESS OUTCOMES – WIIFM?!

Want to remain members

Willing to share information

Strong interpersonal bonds

Resolve conflict effectively

Better interpersonal relationships

STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT

• Intros

• Icebreakers

• YRWH / Purpose

FORMING

• Ground Rules

• Expectations

• Role Definitions

STORMING• Team Identity

• Affirmation of Purpose, Processes

• Tech and Tools

• Behaviors / Habits

NORMING

• Deliverables

• Process Improvement

PERFORMING• Next project / New

members

• Closure / Celebrations

• Lessons Learned

ADJOURNING / TRANSFORMING

(HOW) DOES YOUR TEAM FUNCTION?

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• What stage are we in?

• Forming

• Storming

• Norming

• Performing

• Adjourning / Transforming

• How’s our health?

• Are we a learning organization?

• An open system?

• Or dysfynctional?

FORMING, STORMING… STICKING POINTS!

Boomers

Every day, on time

Long, visible hours

Know what needs to be done

Do it without having to be told

No expectation of recognition

Xer / Millennial

There enough to get the job done

Nothing to prove

Effective output

Tell me what you expect

Clarify

Celebrate and praise

Good teams are committed to the team mission and to each other personally. Good leaders inspire and build this commitment and trust.

Lee Ellis

TEAM KEYWORDS IN A HEALTHY, LEARNING ORGANIZATION

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Meaningful tasks

Common purpose

Shared vision

Customer-centric

Clear priorities

Feeling of belonging

Sense of responsibility to the group

Opportunities for learning

Safe to discuss, disagree (constructive conflict)

Clear ways to evaluate and recognize achievements

CONFLICT RESOLUTIONConstructive (task) conflict

Conflict is aimed at issue, not parties

Produces benefits of conflict

Upper limit to any conflict, including constructive

Relationship (socioemotional) conflict

Aims conflict at the person (e.g. their competence), not the task or issue

Introduces perceptual biases

Distorts information processing

Conflict can be Good!

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CREATIVE FUNCTIONS OF CONFLICT

Conflict can arouse motivation to solve a problem that would otherwise go ignored

Need to reduce the threat or pressure around the issue

HOW?

Identifying and Reframing

Find the underlying issues, find the fairy dust

Honor the position but find the underlying issue

Reframe the issue as something we both care about

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CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS

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• Responses?

– Avoid them

– Face them and handle poorly

– Face them and handle wellConflict!

Stakes are HIGH

LAW OF CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS

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• By studying over 100,000+ participants, and 20

years of research, Patterson et al. found that:

– THE key skill of effective leaders and teammates

is the capacity to skillfully address emotional

and politically risky issues. Period.

SILENCE

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• Kills

84% of 7,000 doctors and nurses said they regularly saw people

take shortcuts, exhibit incompetence, or break rules, and said

nothing.

• Fails

Worldwide, THE predictor (with a 90% accuracy rate) of success or

failure was whether people could hold 5 specific crucial

conversations around scope, schedule, team member performance,

and needs for executive leadership

DIALOGUE IS THE ANSWER.

SKILLED COMMUNICATORS

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1. Respond 5x faster to financial downturns

2. Avoid injury or death due to unsafe conditions 60% more often

than their silent counterparts

3. SAVE over $1500 and an entire 8-hour workday for every time

they held a crucial conversation rather than avoided it

4. Substantially increase TRUST and reduce transaction costs (in virtual

teams)

5. Influence CHANGE in colleagues* who are bullying, conniving,

dishonest or incompetent

*93% of 1,000 respondents said that in their organizations there were employees who were

“untouchable” and that this damaged morale and performance

WHAT YOU REALLY, REALLY WANT

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• What do I really want for myself?

• What do I really want for others (the others

involved in the conflict)?

• What do I really want for this relationship?

AVOID the fool’s choice

Between peace and honesty, winning and losing

Require your brain to solve the more complex problem

1. What is it I really want?

2. What is it I really DON’T want?

3. How can I achieve what I really want, AND avoid what I really don’t want?

SILENCE, REVISITED

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• Masking – with passive aggressive language

– Sarcasm

– Sugarcoating

– Couching

• Avoiding

– Steering completely away from sensitive issues

• Withdrawing – exit the conversation / room

VIOLENCE

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• Name calling, monologuing, threatening

• Any strategy we use to convince, control, or compel others to our POV

• Violates safety by trying to force meaning into the shared pool of thought and

consciousness

1. Controlling – coercing others to your way of thinking by force, domination, changing the

subject

2. Labeling – naming a person or idea so we can dismiss them (Neanderthal, Good Ol’

Boy, HQ, Engineer, IT, HR)

3. Attacking – not only must I win, but I will make you suffer. Belittling.

STATE

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• Share your facts (your truth)

• Tell your story

• Ask for others’ paths (facts and story)

• Talk tentatively – tell your story without stating it as fact

• Encourage testing – make it safe for others to express

different or even opposing views

THE AGREEMENT - HONOREDBegin with a Bonus: Emotional Intelligence coaching to address conflict

Stages of team development

Where conflict happens

Two types of conflict

How to prevent conflict

Crucial conversations – what, when, and how to handle

Generate and share one method for effectively addressing interpersonal conflict on project teams

INTRIGUED?QUESTIONS?

CONNECT!

Twitter: @DrSpranger

Facebook: StepOne Consulting, LLC

LinkedIn / YouTube

Direct: DrSpranger@gmail.com

Call: 757.880.8972